1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to audio speakers, and more specifically to an audio speaker damper connected between the frame and the cone of the speaker with an electrically conductive path on the damper for the voice coil audio signal, and a method therefore.
2. Description of Related Art
Prior art speaker dampers, also known as spiders, in most prior art speakers are made from cloth that has been stiffened. When new, prior art spiders provide a substantially proportional, linear resistance to the movement of the speaker cone on the in-stroke versus the out-stoke. However, after 4 to 5 months of use the cloth damper, or spider, stretches and becomes concave or convex. When the spider stretches, proportionality and linearity are both lost since the spider becomes heavily biased in one direction, either to the in-stroke or to the out-stroke of the speaker cone. That loss of proportionality and linearity results in the spider presenting a different resistance on the out-stroke versus the in-stroke, which reveals itself to the listener in the form of massive distortion of the audio sound.
An additional problem presented in prior art speakers is placement, length and strength of the electrical conductors connecting the voice coil to electrical terminals on the speaker frame from which the speaker is connected to an audio system amplifier. There are two common techniques used in the prior art to make the connection between the voice coil and the speaker terminals typically located on the speaker frame. One is to run a portion of the free ends of the soft conductors of the voice coil along a portion of the speaker cone with those portions of the conductors glued to the cone, and the end of each conductor drawn through a hole in the cone and then across the space from the cone to the speaker terminals. This configuration requires the wires to have an elastic behavior during deep inward and outward strokes of the voice coil and cone that forces the portion of the wires in open space to wobble and make noise.
Nowadays with speaker designers trying to minimize speaker profiles, the use of a spider is more problematic since the use of tensile voice coil leads require more speaker mounting depth. For speakers used in limited depth locations, such as notebook computers, toys, cell phones, PDAs (personal data assistants), etc.
In woofer design, the prior art use of tensile leads causes massive audible distortion from the speaker due to the tensile leads flapping up and down on the cone as it moves during long inward and outward strokes. Shortening the tensile leads was thought to be a reasonable technique to reduce that noise. However, that proved to be more problematic on the assembly line as the worker tended to make the tensile lead wire too short. Those shorter leads broke either because then were too short for the maximum travel of the speaker cone when in use, or by the wire leads being overly flexed during speaker use since the shorter leads were flexed and stretched much more than the previously used longer leads. In either situation the leads eventually broke during operation of the speaker with the speaker ceasing to function with all output from the speaker lost, not only distorted as with the longer tensile leads.
In short, the prior art speakers experience numerous problems:    1. they can not be used where the mounting depth is shallow;    2. precise assembly is required to minimize distortion and maximize speaker life;    3. assembly is complex and time consuming;    4. number of speaker cone cycles over the life of the speaker is marginal;    5. distortion results from tensile lead noise;    6. spider design results in distortion due to an uneven force strain for inward vs. outward movement within a short period of the first use of the speaker; and    7. speaker cost of production, and to the consumer, is impacted by the use of separate components for the damper, tensile wires, clamps and the installation of same.
The present invention overcomes or minimizes these problems presented by prior art speakers.